Where It All Started

When my parents first broached the idea of spending our spring break in the Dominican Republic, I was elated.  Until I found out that we would be working at an orphanage in a run down area, not too far from San Juan.  My family had previously vacationed over spring break, either on ski trips, road trips, or tropical vacations.  But this mission trip to the Dominican Republic was none of those.  Don’t get me wrong, I love helping people, but somehow I had the idea that spring break was my break and my time to enjoy myself.  I was in eighth grade and had not fully grasped the reality that some people never get that opportunity to relax and enjoy themselves because life is constant struggle of survival.

We left for the trip on a Friday night at midnight.  After driving through the night to philly, sleeping a little in the airport, catching

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an early morning flight, a connecting flight and another connecting flight, we arrived in the Dominican Republic.  The weather was balmy and there was a carefree attitude to many of the passengers who exited the flight, clad in the typical tourist garb of wide straw hats, sandals and loose shirts covered in palm trees.  I secretly wished I was one of those tourists, flitting a way to a weekend of uninterrupted

bliss.  But what lay ahead was infinitely more fulfilling and enjoyable.  We boarded a rickety bus with an animated native as our driver who insisted on the loading the many luggage pieces into the back of the bus himself.  The bus ride began and as we swerved in between cars on a highway where there were no pavement markings and clearly no rules. People passed each other whenever they choose and tooted their horn when entering an intersection to let others no they were coming.  I saw 1-2 traffic lights the entire five hour trip.  I realized that I had no idea where we were going and my life was in the hands of this overexcited bus driver and the man leading our trip… The surprises on that bus ride where nothing extraordinary compared to the 60 boys at the orphanage who were unable to sleep that night because of the anticipation of our arrival the next morning.

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